War Photographer's Notebook

On the outskirts of Santa Fe, a small town in the east of Pinos Island, a small truck with a fishy smell passed through the dirt road in the farmland against the rising sun, and finally stopped at the gate of a farm wrapped in layers of farmland and Cuban mahogany.

Before getting out of the car, Wei Ran could clearly see that there was a string of words he didn't know written on the huge metal signboard at the entrance of the farm——Quizás Centro de rehabilitación psiquiátrica.
"Quizás Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center, Spanish, Quizás is also the name of a song, the favorite song of the director of this mental hospital."

While talking, Ninel also changed into proficient Spanish, patted the steering wheel and hummed:
"Siempre que te pregunto~
Que cuándo, cómo y dónde~
Tú siempre me respondes~
Quizás, quizás, quizás”

"I've never heard of it." Wei Ran looked at the extraordinarily beautiful white buildings inside the iron fence courtyard, and said proudly, "I'm a music idiot."

"It's not something to show off." Ninel shook his head regretfully, and lightly honked the car horn.

Soon, a middle-aged female nurse with big arms and round waist came out of a church-like building, and Ninel also opened the car door and waved to her from a distance.

Seeing that it was Ninel, the female nurse immediately responded enthusiastically, and then shouted something behind her in Spanish that Wei Ran could not understand, while opening the locked iron fence as quickly as possible Door.

Driving the car into the mental hospital, Ninel parked the car in the shadow of a lush mahogany tree, opened the door to call Wei Ran to get off the car, and then spoke Spanish with the strong female nurse at a very high speed Chatting quickly, while hugging each other.

Soon, the female nurse pointed to another two-story house in the distance that was shrouded in the shadow of trees, and handed a stun gun to Ninel by the way. Immediately afterwards, she picked up another stun gun from the container. While yelling something in Spanish that Wei Ran could not understand, he walked towards the church in the distance.

After taking a look at the stun gun, Ninel winked at Wei Ran, and walked straight to the not-so-big single-family building.

Along the way, Wei Ran also noticed that apart from all kinds of trees and flowers that can be seen everywhere in this big courtyard, there are only four buildings.

In addition to the church and the single two-story building, there are two three-story buildings with many windows and a row of buildings that look like workshops at the two walls farthest from each other in the oval yard. .

In addition, there is a basketball court in the center of the yard and a row of tall trees that provide a lot of shade.

Led by Ninel, the two walked into the two-story building with French windows on all sides.

In addition to the air-conditioning coming from the shop, the most conspicuous thing in this room is a variety of exercise equipment that looks very old, and nothing is more than a tall, thin, white-skinned woman who looks like she may be 70 years old, but has an exceptional temperament.

This white-haired woman in sports shorts and short sleeves has unforgettable ice blue pupils. When the two of Wei Ran entered, she was jogging on a treadmill. The old record player seemed to be playing the Spanish song that Nignel had just hummed.

"sit"

The old woman didn't stop jogging, she just pointed to the sofa in the distance, and wiped the sweat off her face with a white towel around her neck.

Nieer didn't care too much, and took Wei Ran to the center of the room, beckoned him to sit on the sofa, and then familiarly took out two cans of sports drinks from the refrigerator not far away against the pillar to share with them. Wei Ran.

"wait a minute"

Ninel glanced at the quartz watch hanging on the wall, "In 24 minutes, Aunt Santos's morning exercise will be over. Before that, we can have breakfast first."

Before Wei Ran could say anything, another middle-aged female nurse who was also big and thick, with sea anchors and skull flags tattooed on her bare arms, also delivered two servings of food on a large tray. Breakfast, and two large glasses of cold beer with thick foam.

Ignoring Wei Ran at all, Ninel first said something loudly in Spanish, and warmly hugged the middle-aged woman who put down the tray, and then directly picked up the one that was almost as big as a face, with several thick pieces sandwiched in the middle. Layer ham and cheese on bread, open your mouth and take a big bite.

And the tattooed female nurse who brought breakfast sat on the opposite sofa with a kind face, and stretched out her hand benevolently to signal Wei Ran to eat quickly.

Seeing this, Wei Ran, who was already so hungry that his chest was stuck to his back, was not polite. He picked up another piece of bread and took a big bite. Before the food with the smell of wheat and meat could be swallowed, he held up He picked up the cup and touched Ninel.

Although the meal was enjoyable, Wei Ran could also tell that Ninel didn't seem to want to speak Russian in front of the female nurse.

The other party obviously wanted to hide something, and Wei Ran was not some ignorant idiot, so he stuffed his mouth tightly with mouthfuls of food and beer.

It wasn't until she finished eating the whole "Cuban Roujiamo" and drank a whole glass of cold and mellow beer that the female nurse nodded in satisfaction, hugged Ninel and the overwhelmed Wei Ran again, and simply took He picked up the tray and the cups and left the room.

Watching the other party go away, Ninel hiccupped for a long time without any image, and then asked in Russian, "What do you want to ask?"

"Give me a break"

Wei Ran, who was in a hurry to eat just now, waved his hand, unscrewed the bottle of sports drink and took a sip, then calmed down and said in a low voice, "What is the origin of Aunt Santos?"

"Medical Advisors Sent from the Soviet Era"

Ninel explained in a low voice, "After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Aunt Santos chose to stay and started running this mental hospital. I don't know the rest."

Before he finished speaking, the woman who had been jogging just now stopped slowly and said slowly in Russian, "Wait for me a moment, I'll take a shower first."

After finishing speaking, Aunt Santos turned off the record player without waiting for Ninel or Wei Ran to respond, and walked into the bathroom not far away while wiping her sweat.

In less than 10 minutes, the outstanding old lady walked out of the bathroom and sat on the sofa in a pair of beach shorts and a floral shirt.

"Niniel, how do you remember coming back, little guy? Are you in trouble again?" While talking, Aunt Santos also raised her legs, bent down and picked up half a cigar from the table, lit it and put it in her mouth inside.

However, her sluggish tone finally let Wei Ran know why Ninel spoke so slowly. If there is no accident, she probably learned from her.

"He's Victor, my friend, a student of Uncle Gorman and Aunt Daria and Uncle Culp."

Nie Nie paused, and continued to speak at the same slow speed, "Not long ago, he helped me kill the bell ringer."

"You are Victor?"

Aunt Santos, who is over seventy years old, spewed a thick cloud of smoke at Wei Ran like a gangster woman, and then offered to help disperse the smoke with her hand, and asked slowly, "Little guy, how is Gorman?" ?”

"I lived a fulfilling life." Wei Ran gave an ambiguous answer.

"I've wanted to see you for a long time," Aunt Santos said, then looked at Ninel, "Tell me about your troubles."

"Auntie, we are here to help you solve your troubles."

Nignel paused for a moment, then sped up his speech a little and said, "How about letting Victor take Lazalo and his friends away?"

"Take Lazalo? Him?"

Aunt Santos took a puff of her cigar, and when the thick smoke was blown out of her mouth, she asked abruptly, "Which little country are you two trying to subvert?"

"This matter has nothing to do with me." Ninel picked himself clean without hesitation.

"I started out just trying to buy some genius from Nigner"

Wei Ran replied truthfully, "He recommended me to come here. In fact, I didn't even know the name Lazalo."

"Can you tell me what you want to do?" Santos asked, puffing.

"Sorry, I can't." Wei Ran spread his hands, "It has nothing to do with trust, but I can't say it."

"Lazalo is not mentally ill. For him, this place can only be regarded as his nursing home." Santos put his smoked cigar on the ashtray, "So is he willing to take his friends with you? , I’m afraid you’ll have to go talk to him yourself.”

"Now?" Wei Ran paused, "Can he speak Russian?"

"Of course, Russian, English, and Spanish are all fine." Santos stood up while speaking, "Let's go, I'll take you to meet him now."

Hearing this, Wei Ran immediately stood up, but found that Ninel did not stand up, but just handed over the electric shock device, "Friend, I wish you good luck."

This small detail immediately raised Wei Ran's vigilance, and when he took over the stun gun, Niel also tapped Wei Ran's finger lightly with his finger.

Secretly raising his vigilance, Wei Ran followed Santos out of the room and walked straight to the church-like building.

As the two-meter-high wooden door was pushed open, before Wei Ran had time to see clearly what was going on inside, he heard chattering and arguing.

Immediately afterwards, he saw that there were no statues of gods in this church at all, and thick blackout curtains were drawn on the surrounding windows.

And in the center of the church, there is a long table full of various breakfasts. The main seat of this long table is an old man in a wheelchair who seems to be in his 60s. Yes, there are men and women, there are old men and there are young people who look like 20 years old at most.

On both sides of the church gate, there stood a middle-aged female nurse with a big waist and a stun gun.

Not to mention the two familiar female nurses, those who were only sitting around the long table did not notice Santos and Wei Ran who came in at this time, but lowered their voices, buzzing with Wei Ran Talking about something in Spanish that I don't understand.

Seeing Wei Ran’s puzzled expression, Santos waved at the two female nurses, and when they left, he closed the door and said softly in Russian, “They are discussing how to break the U.S. blockade against Cuba, and how to make it for the U.S. trouble."

After a short pause, Santos pointed to the number written on the blackboard behind the old man sitting in the farthest seat, "This is already their 1244th meeting."

"Once a day?" Wei Ran asked in disbelief.

"Not sure, at first three times a month, then once a week, then once every three days, once every two days, once a day or even several times a day."

Santos shook his head, "At the beginning, Lazalo, who was sitting in the main seat, just used this place as a nursing home, but he accidentally discovered that there is a mental patient here who was the madman he sent to Miami. This old friend discovered the value of the mentally ill."

"so."

"He was almost insane, especially after Castro died."

When Santos said this, he stuffed the middle fingers of both hands into his mouth and blew a loud hooligan whistle, then waved to the dissatisfied old man on the other side of the long table, and said something in Spanish.

Before the words were finished, the old guy suspected to be Lazarro immediately came over shaking his wheelchair.

"push him"

Santos whispered into Wei Ran's ear in Russian, and then stepped out of the church where the scalp was itching again, and walked straight to the two-story building in the distance, leaving behind only the wheelchair that had just been rolled out. Wei Ran and Lazalo of the church stared wide-eyed.

"Do you know Russian?" Wei Ran asked after the other party said something in Spanish to him.

"Russian? Of course, I studied in Leningrad."

Lazalo switched to slightly jerky Russian, "But I haven't used it for a long, long time, so young man, what do you want to do with me?"

"What did the dean say just now?" Wei Ran asked while pushing the other party towards the shade of a tree in the distance.

"She said she found me a partner"

Lazalo, who was sitting in a wheelchair, turned his upper body enthusiastically, "So do you want to launch a guerrilla movement in the United States or plan to recruit party members? Or use conspiracy to encourage the independence of Texas and Alaska?"

"Can I hear your thoughts?" Wei Ran threw the topic back, and at the same time was very sure that this old guy has gone crazy. "

"The guerrilla movement is outdated. Americans have done very well in public opinion propaganda, so it is not realistic to recruit party members."

Lazalo snapped his fingers when he said this, "So I think we should find a way to promote the independence of Texas and Alaska!"

"why?"

Wei Ran continued to ask, "Is there any advantage in doing this? No, to change the question, do you think Texans are really willing to be independent?"

"No, of course those rednecks don't want to. I have dealt with them. They are stubborn, bright and idiotic, but they are more patriotic than those dirty politicians in New York and Washington."

Lazzaro spread his hands, "But we've had 1244 meetings, and I've collected enough genius ideas from the mouths of those sociopathic lunatics in the church, and now I'm only one chance to practice."

"new problem"

Wei Ran bent down slightly, and asked next to the other person's ear, "I want to play a debate match. I don't have any other detailed conditions. What suggestions do you have?"

"Suggest?"

Lazalo said without thinking, "If you want to win the game, find a good enough debate team and provide enough information. If you want to disrupt the opponent's logic, have you seen that church?"

Lazalo pointed to the direction behind him, "There are 12 antisocial lunatics with the most unstable conditions sitting there. Just gathering a group of people from it is enough to destroy the other party's logic."

"Are those people geniuses?"

"No, they are all lunatics, the most unstable lunatics."

Lazalo said proudly, "Their thoughts are not bound by any rules and regulations, their thinking logic is chaotic, and they do have enough experience in being a mental patient."

Having said that, Lazalo spread his hands, turned his back to Wei Ran who was standing behind the wheelchair and said, "Look, who can win the fight against mental illness?"